1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to cutting devices, and more particularly to apparatus for slitting thin sheet materials.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The ubiquitous plastic packages that hold snack foods and other products possess many advantages. The packages are inexpensive, sanitary, and easily disposable. The packaging material is very strong, and it is usually transparent so as to permit consumers to see the package contents.
On the other hand, the strength of the plastic packaging material presents a problem that is as widespread as the packages themselves--how to open the packages. Manually tearing open a package is very difficult. In some packages, it is possible to spread the package walls and pull them apart at a seam, but that method has limited usefulness. Cutting instruments such as knives and scissors can easily cut a package, but those instruments are rarely at hand when needed. As a consequence, people often resort to using their teeth or any convenient sharp object to open a package, often with harmful results to the fragile contents.
A prior tool for opening plastic packages is marketed commercially under the trademark CHEF CRAFT. That tool includes a short blade point embedded in one end of an elongated plate. The other end of the plate is hingedly connected to a second generally parallel plate. By placing a plastic package between the two plates and squeezing them together, the bag is punctured. Then pulling the bag causes the blade to slice the bag. Despite its apparent usefulness, the prior tool has a couple of disadvantages. The blade is installed in a direction perpendicular to the lenth of the plates, which makes the tool rather awkward to use. The blade tip contacts the opposite plate during operation, which causes the blade to rip and tear the bag rather than to neatly slice it. Further, the blade is quite exposed and accessible to the user's fingers, thereby rendering it dangerous to use.
Thus, a need exists for a way to easily open plastic packages.